The South western news., 1887-10-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject "Unoccupied Fields. 8

"Un0ceupted Fields"
After thu church was full of people, and
an the adjoining rooms packed, as many
people Went away from the doors as got in.
TEXT! " Lest | should build upon another
mans Foundation. Romans XIV, 20.
Stirring reports come from all parts of
america showing what a great work the
churches of God are doing, and | congratu-
late them and their pastors. Misapprehen-
SONS nave been going the rounds of some of
me feliglous pres depreciating the gener-
oslty OF this church 1871 ,}l624 have been
pald cash down in this church for religious
USES and Christian work during the nineteen
ears Oh my ministry here This church was
pult oy al denominations of Christians and
oE people from all lands and hence we nave
cen raising money for many objects outside
our denomination, and that has sometimes
I1ltefIered with our contributions to the
poaIus OF our denomination, Subscriution
BOOKS for all good objects. Christian, humani-
Idrlall, collegiate, and missionary have been
mere as common as the daylight, and no
thurch III Christendom has been more com
tinuous III its benevoences than this Be
side thar we have received during the year
e 80 SOUS ON profession OF faith in Christ. a
Idct uhaJ mention, not in boastinp but to
snow s4w that this church has not been idle
ne most of our acceSsions have been from
Ine outside world, so that, taking the idea Of
my text we have not been building on other
peoples foundations
In laying out the plan of his missionary
tour Paul sought out towns and cities which
1lad ho5 yet been preached to- He goes to
oornth, city mentioned for splendor and
VI 9, and Jerusalem, where the priesthood
ana the Sanhedrim were ready to leap with
oo5h feet upon the Christian religion. He
feels he has especial work to do, and he means
Il,o
est life OF usefulness that a man ever lived.
we modern Christian workers are not apt to
I'm tate Paul We build on other PEOPLES
foundations. If we erect church we prefer
10 nave 1t filled with families, all of whom
nave been pious Do we gather a Sabbath
sclool class, we want good boys and girls,
har combed, faces washed manners attract
I'VE, So church in this day is apt TO be
bullt out of other churches. Some ministers
spend all their time in fishing in other peo-
pies ponds, and they throw the line into that
church pond and jerk out a Methodist and
thfow the line into another church pond and
nrlng out Presbyterian, and there is a re-
llglous row in some neighboring church. and
whole school of fish swim off from that
pond and we take them all in with one sweep
OF Ine net. What is gained Absolutely
nothing for the general cause of Christ II
Is only as IN an army, when a regiment is
transferred from one division to another,
from the Tennessee to the Potomac
What strengthens the army is new recruits.
what have always desired is that while we
are courteous to those coming from other
focks, we build our church not out of other
churches, but out of the world, lest we build
on another mans foundation. The fact is
this is a big world. When, in our schoolboy
days, we learned the diameter and circumfer-
ence OF this planet we did not learn half. 1t
has latitude and longitude and diameter
and cIrQJn1 pf ont 4 IL.
that no figures can calculate This one spir-
ltual continent OF wretchedness reaches across
all zones, and if | We're called to give its geo
graphical boundary would say it is bounded
on the north and south and east and west by
the great heart of Coils sympathy and love
Oh 1t IS great world Since O'clock This
morning 60, 500 persons have been born and
all these multiplied populations are to be
reached of the Gospel. In England, or
IN our eastern American cities we
are being much crowded, and an acre of
ground is of great value, but out West 500
acres Is small farm, and 10000 acres is no
unusual possession. But there is a vast spir-
ltual field here and everywhere unoccupied,
plenty of room for more not building on
another mans foundation.
we need, as churches, to stop bombarding
Jhe Old lronclad sinners that have been proof
against thirty years Of Car stan ASSAULT
Alas for that church which lacks the spirit of
evangelism, spending enough on one chande-
ller to light $40 souls TO glory, and in one
carved pillar enough to have made a thousand
men pillars in the house OF our God for
ever" and doing less good than many log
cabin meeting house. with tallow candles
stuck in wooden sorkets and minister who
has never seen college on known the differ
ence between Gre k and Choctaw We
need as churches to geb into sympathy
| with the great out de World, and lot them
Mann l,..,1- I
hardly bestea1 that WI hot be welcomed.
| MOP says some FAST loas Christian, Il
don't like to be crowded In church. Don't
put any one in my Iew' My brother, what
will you do in heaven. When a great null
tltude that no man can number assemblies
they will put fifty in your pow What are
the select few to-day assembled in the Chris
| tianchurches compared to the mightier mill
ions outside of them eight hundred thousand
| in Brooklyn, but less than one hundred
thousand in the churches Many Of TIC
churches are like a HOSPITAL that should lvei-
tso that It's patients must have no hing
worse tnan toOthaehe o. ''ru Grounds y bat no
broken heads, no crushe ark es, no fractured
| thighs. tive us for treatment moderate sin.
ners, velvet coated sin cls and sinners with
/ a gloss or. 1t is as though a man had a
| farm OF tarCe thousand acres and put all his
work on one acre He m ~ raise never so
| large ears of corn, never 50 big heads of wheat
he would remain poor. The church Of Col has
bestowed its chief care on one acre, ami has
raised splendid men and wonien in that small
Enclosure; but the field is the world. That
means North ard Sotth America, Europe,
Asia and Africa and all the islands of the
sea. 1t is as though artara great battle there
were lett Jj,OO wounded and dying on the
field, ana three surgeons gave all their time
to three patients under their charge The
Major General comes in and saws to the doe.
tors: GONE out here and look at fhe Il ally
! 5000 ,lving f6r Ii X Of surgical attendance"
No s3y HE three o.tos3, Standing there
fanniHg III IL patients, we have three i'm
portant cas2s here AMI we are attending TO
them, an when we are not positively busy
with their woun Is. it takes all our time
to keep the flies of. In this awful bat
tie of sin and sorrow, whore millions have
fallen on millions. do not let us spend oil our
time in taking care OF a few people and when
the command comics: $50 into the world, y
say practically. $40, / cannot 90; / have here
few choice eases, ana am busy keeping Off
the flies y There are multtudcs to-day who
have never had any Chr It an worker look
them in the eye. and with Yuestness in the
accantuat'0n say: Come or they would
long ago have be,a in the kingdom. My
friends, r;ig.oa IS either a Sh m or tremsn
dous re4.ity. lit be a sham, e. us disband
our churches AMI Car.stian association. II
it be n reality then g eat populations are on
the way 10 the bar q God untitled for the
ordeal, ami what are we doing
In order to reach the multitude of out
siders we must drop all teehnicalities out Of
our re gjon When we talk to people about
the hypJstatic union and French Encyclo
pedianism and Erastinianism and Compu
tensianism, we are as impolitic and littlt
understood as if a physician should talk to an
ordinary patient about the pericardium and
intercostal muscle, and scorbutic symptoms
Many of us come out of the theological semi.
naries so loaded up that we take the first ten
years to show our people how much we know,
and the next ten years get our people TO
know as much as we know, and at the end
find that neither Of us know ANYTHING as we